Baseball players don’t require their athletes to have their number on their helmet when they step into the batter’s box. Basketball doesn’t require players to tattoo their number on their forehead; they don’t need numbers on their headbands either. The NFL doesn’t require their teams to put player numbers on the front of helmets—although some teams rock the numbers as a fashion statement (we’re looking at you Pittsburgh Steelers and New York Football Giants). But the NHL doesn’t care about any of that noise. They’re setting their own trend and requiring NHL teams to add numbers to the front of all players’ helmets before the beginning of the regular season.

Who says the NHL isn’t a trailblazing league?

In a seriesoftweets, NHL Senior Manager of Communication Schuyler Baehman explained the new, required look for all 30 teams:

“Player numbers will be added to the front forehead (centered) location of all player helmets at the start of this season. Front numbers are not required to be placed on goaltenders headgear. Numbers on the front and back of helmets will measure no less than 1.25” and no more than 2” in height.”

Not all change is bad—there have been plenty of changes over the short preseason for the upcoming year. But what is the point of dropping the numbers onto the helmets? Broadcasters have seemed to be doing just fine figuring out which player is which on the ice for the last fifty years and on-ice officials do a pretty good job figuring out which player belongs in the penalty box. Is there another reason for making the change?

In a day and age that every single potential change is discussed and debated, it’s interesting that this move is coming out only eight days before the beginning of the regular season. In the grand scheme of things, the new numbers will affect equipment managers around the league than anyone else.

If nothing else, at least we’ll have yet new change to look forward to this season. Now if they could just change home teams back to wearing white, then we might be onto something.

With all of the Alexander Seminbashing lately, at least one of the Capitals’ Russian snipers is having a good offseason. Rumors broke this afternoon that Alexander Ovechkin was signing an endorsement deal with Nike. Originally, it was thought that Ovechkin’s news conference schedule for Tuesday was to announce the endorsement deal—but now it looks like the press conference is unrelated to tonight’s news.

“I can confirm that Alex has signed a long-term global partnership with Nike. Alex is going to be supporting all of the products that Nike makes — apparel, footwear, performance apparel, casual wear, accessories and other elements of the Nike family of products. So he will be wearing their performance product when he’s playing and practicing, when he’s training and in his lifestyle.”
“From a lifestyle standpoint, everybody knows that Ovi has a unique fashion sense.”

This isn’t Nike’s first foray into the NHL. Hockey fans might recall the memorable Nike commercial that featured Markus Naslund and Ilya Kovalchuk going mano y mano. In the 1990s, there were players who sported the swoosh on the ice; including Sergei Fedorov and currently Steven Stamkos as signed up with the Oregon-based shoe company.

It’s understandable why Nike would target Ovechkin for a long-term endorsement deal. Aside from Sidney Crosby (who is locked into a deal with Reebok), there isn’t a more recognizable hockey player on the planet. We’re talking about a guy who just had the worst season of his career and still managed 32 goals and 85 points last season to lead the Capitals. The man has averaged 50 goals and 102 points per season over his 6 year career. Sometimes fans get a bit callous to his regular season dominance since he’s entered the league.

The next step for Ovechkin (and now his marketing partner) is a deep run in the playoffs. Even though the Washington captain was arguably the best Capitals player on the ice during last year’s playoffs, the fact remains that they haven’t gone past the Conference Semifinals since 1998. For the new sponsor to get full return on their endorsement deal, they’ll want maximum visibility for their product wearing player. In the world of the NHL, there’s no bigger stage than a deep run in the playoffs.